In general, air conditioning apparatuses are apparatuses for cooling, heating or cleaning air.
The air conditioning apparatus may include an air conditioner as a cooling device for cooling an indoor space, a heat pump for heating the indoor space, and an air cleaner for cleaning indoor air.
A dust collector for an air conditioning apparatus is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication Gazette No. 2002-0043307 (Publication date: Jun. 10, 2002) that is a prior document.
The dust collector includes an ionizing part for ionizing impurities in air, a gold net disposed on a rear surface of the ionizing part to filter the impurities passing through the ionizing part, and a collection part charging the fine impurities passing through the gold net so that the impurities have opposite polarity to absorb the charged fine impurities through an electrostatic force.
According to the dust collector according to the related art, since the ionizing part is disposed at a rear side of a suction part in the air conditioning apparatus, only a portion of the air passes through the ionizing part, and thus air cleaning performance is deteriorated. Also, the ionizing part itself acts as flow resistance against the air. Also, the ionizing part is disposed in the air conditioning apparatus to decrease space occupancy efficiency in the air conditioning apparatus. If the ionizing part increases in size, the air conditioning apparatus also increases in size.